Jay Onrait chokes back tears addressing cuts at TSN, loss of longtime co-host Dan O'Toole

To say last week was a hard one at TSN would be a huge understatement. Its parent company, Bell Media, went on a job-chopping spree in radio and television across the country, cutting some recognizable names in several markets. Last Wednesday's airing of SportsCentre turned out to be the last one for Dan O'Toole, one half of the Jay&Dan show, a staple for many hockey fans across Canada. While the show covered pretty much all professional sports, in Canada hockey is king and the pair was known for entertaining fans while going through hockey highlights for several years.

While O'Toole is gone, Jay Onrait remains, something that couldn't have been easy on either. Onrait has now released a video where he addresses the cuts, including the one of his very good friend Dan.

Besides O'Toole, the show also cut head writer Brendan Halloran and Producer Tim (Jay and Dan made reference to him several times throughout their shows). Onrait mentioned he started at TSN with Producer Tim in 1996. He then moves on to O'Toole.

"Yesterday, Toolsy and I were on his back deck drinking White Claws, because we're 46, and we were talking about how when young people see us now, they tell us they grew up with us. Which makes us feel old. But, also, so grateful, because when we started on this network together almost two decades ago, we had one priority, to be ourselves on television. And it only worked because you guys watched it. Because, let's face it, our show was pretty weird! But you made us a part of your routine with your families all across this country at morning and night."

While Onrait went on after this, he became visibly choked up talking about it.

"Dan and I will always appreciate that. So on behalf of Dan and Tim and myself, and everybody on this amazing crew, thank you."

While it appears Jay and Dan will remain friends, O'Toole was not very happy with his former network. You can read more about that below.

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